Consumer electronics company Pioneer turned heads a year ago when riders for the Blanco (now Belkin) pro cycling team began showing up at races with a Pioneer-branded power meter.

The system had one significant difference from other power meters. It was able to show not only left-right power balance but also, in real time, display a clock-face-like representation of the actual force direction and intensity at 12 points on the pedal stroke.

Of course it had drawbacks: It was complicated and difficult to install. And it was expensive, at nearly $2,000 without the crankset. The head unit cost another $900, and it was the only unit able to show the force vector data in real time.

But if the initial effort was a little underwhelming, Pioneer’s size is allowing it to move fast: The company this week announced a second, extensively overhauled iteration, which is simpler and cheaper. It will be available in mid-March.
Key Changes
The unit now sells as a fully assembled crankset rather than a shop-installation-only add-on to your existing crankarms. Shop installation is still recommended, due to magnet placement and frame compatibility. However, the installation process is vastly more simplified, with no need to replace a bottom bracket.

A new, smaller head unit offers almost all the functions of the existing version, but at a third of the price ($300).

The meter is Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 and Ultegra 6800 compatible, including crankarm lengths from 165mm to 177.5mm, albeit not in every chainring combination. And there’s lower pricing: $1,850 for the Dura-Ace version (with crankarm) and $1,550 for the Ultegra version.

Pioneer Into the Unknown All of this begs a simple question: Why is Pioneer, which is a giant in the fields of home audio, car electronics, and DJ equipment, making a power meter to begin with?

In an interview, Pioneer’s executive vice president of sales, marketing, and product planning, Russ Johnston, said that power meters actually align well with some of what the company already does well technically: digital data streaming and error correction in consumer electronics. The presence of several enthusiast cyclists on the engineering staff made it an interesting area to explore.

Johnston said Pioneer didn’t simply want to add another power meter to the field. “We wanted to take dual-leg power a step further,” he said. “Our idea was to provide the rider with the ability to see how they deliver power throughout the pedal stroke.”

With Pioneer’s head unit and data management software, you can track all that information, plus more conventional functions like GPS, heart rate, and cadence. It’s an interesting idea, and Johnston freely allowed that the company wasn’t sure what cyclists would do with the data.

“The feedback we’ve gotten from coaches and others in the sport is, ‘This is interesting; now what do we do with it?’” he said. “Hunter Allen [software maker TrainingPeaks’ founder] told us he’d never seen data like this before. He said up until now we’ve been operating on 20-year-old theories on pedal stroke.”

The Pioneer power meter and software add a new dimension to power metrics. (Courtesy)

Some of those theories were originated by Jeff Broker, PhD, a biomechanist formerly with the Olympic Training Center. Broker’s research shows that the old chestnut about pulling up on the back of the pedal stroke is a myth. No cyclist actually applies power throughout the pedal stroke. (Mountain bikers tend to have the smoothest pedal stroke; trackies and triathletes are the biggest gear mashers.)

Further, in a talk reviewing his research at the 2007 Serotta Cycling Science symposium in Denver, Broker said that it isn’t necessarily useful to try to develop a perfect pedal stroke. Efficiency isn’t about a perfectly smooth spin, but rather involves proper application of force during the down stroke.

That said, Pioneer’s data shows the direction of force as well, which could lead to some useful new ideas about training and bike fit to improve efficiency. Right now, that data is only accessible with the Pioneer power meter and in Pioneer’s proprietary Cyclosphere cloud-based software, although third-party developers like TrainingPeaks may develop updates to incorporate the data.

So far, Pioneer is at best an outside player in a small subset of the cycling world. And we’ve not yet had the opportunity to test even the original unit. But in the jump from the clunky first version of the power meter (which relied partly on zip-ties to attach to the crankarm) to the second, they’ve shown some impressive adaptation. We’ll report back with test results as they happen.

The Pioneer power meter is compatible with other ANT+ head units, but requires a mechanic to change the transmitting mode. (Courtesy)